Hollywood Hoofbeats: The Fascinating Story of Horses in Movies and Television, Expanded and Updated 2nd Edition (CompanionHouse Books) The Truth about Trigger, Silver, the Avatar Direhorses, and More

Book Synopsis: Learn all about the horses that captured moviegoers' hearts! True stories of the famous horses from TV and film including Mister Ed, Silver from The Lone Ranger, Gene Autry's Champion, and more. 200 photos and illustrations, including rare movie posters, movie stills, and film clips. Movie trivia and fascinating anecdotes about the stars of yesterday and today. An inside look at stunts that horses performed in motion pictures, and the lingering controversies. Action films, Westerns, comedies, musicals, child stars, and more, each get their own dedicated chapters. Updated, expanded text includes coverage of new movies and photographs not seen in the first edition. From the early days of D.W. Griffith's The Great Train Robbery to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, this celebration of horses in movies promises something for every Hollywood fan! Written by Petrine Day Mitchum, the daughter of famed film star Robert Mitchum (who himself appeared on the silver screen atop a handsome chestnut gelding), Hollywood Hoofbeats is an unbridled celebration of horses on the big and little screens, from the silent era until today. The raucous comedy of Abbot and Costello (and 'Teabiscuit') in It Ain't Hay, classic sports films like National Velvet starring Elizabeth Taylor, a timeless epic with Errol Flynn, and films featuring guitar-strumming cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers—none of these films would have been the same without the Hollywood horses that are the subject of Hollywood Hoofbeats. "The movies as we know them would be vastly different without horses. There would be no Westerns—no cowboy named John Wayne—no Gone with the Wind, no Ben Hur, no Dances with Wolves," as author Petrine Day Mitchum writes. There would also be no War Horse, no True Grit, and no Avatar! These last three 21st-century Hollywood creations are among the new films covered in this expanded second edition of Hollywood Hoofbeats. Having grown up around movie stars and horses, Petrine Day Mitchum is the ideal author to pay tribute to the thousands of equine actors that have entertained the world since the inception of the film medium. Inside these 224 entertaining pages, you'll find the stories behind Hollywood's most beloved horses, including Trigger, Mister Ed, and Zorro's noble steed Tornado; intriguing anecdotes about the movies' famous leading men, including John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, and dozens of others; backstage stories of some of Hollywood's most famous films, from D.W. Griffith's controversial The Birth of a Nation to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy; secrets behind amusing horse tricks and harrowing death-defying stunts before the days of computer-generated imagery; interviews with some of Hollywood's most renowned directors, trainers, and stuntmen; hundreds of illustrations, including movie stills, backstage photos, and poster art; and more! The perfect gift for any horse lover or movie aficionado, this expanded and updated second edition of Hollywood Hoofbeats is a backstage pass for all movie buffs who want to relive the excitement of some Hollywood's greatest achievements featuring their favorite two- and four-legged actors!